Bacon is the new black
I have been trying to figure out how it all started and according to Wikipedia, it seems to have started in 1988 when the website “BBQ Addicts” posted their recipe for the mother of all bacon recipes the Bacon Explosion on their website. That is apparently the day bacon went viral.
Now it seems to be appearing just about everywhere. I’ve seen everything from bacon flavoured lip gloss to bacon flavoured envelopes creates so you can even get your fix while you’re paying your bills! Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not complaining – I love bacon, absolutely everything about it and it seems to have taken on a life of its own not just in my world but around the globe.
As a joke about 18 months ago I added crispy cooked bacon into a chocolate chip cookie for a friend’s birthday, a fellow bacon lover I thought would appreciate my thoughtfulness. The cookies have become a great selling item at Well Seasoned, we stock them in frozen unbaked dough balls and have had folks come from as far as Kelowna on a day trip to buy them.
Fast forward to now and it appears that millions of other folks are starting to appreciate that whole sweet salty combination that makes the bacon work so well in desserts. When the bacon is well cooked and the fat has been rendered out adding it to a recipe just adds another really interesting layer of flavour – people who don’t know it is in the recipe usually mistake it for nuts…I guess the crunchy texture and meatiness make them think they might be eating walnuts instead.
I hear from non bacon eaters (vegetarians) that bacon is really one of the only meat items they miss…I guess bacon is like a gateway drug for carnivores. In my mind bacon is one of those perfect foods, I always have it on hand – it can be defrosted quickly to transform a pasta dish in minutes, it can be cooked crispy and turned quickly into the ultimate BLT and who among us has never had breakfast for dinner?
I can’t stop adding bacon to food where it previously didn’t belong; it’s a slippery slope of porky goodness. I am doing it partially for the shock factor I suppose, trying to freak out my friends & family and partially because it is really cool to see how well it works in absolutely everything….I have made a brown butter cake with cream cheese bacon frosting, chocolate bacon bark, caramel bacon popcorn and even bacon baklava. It is so much fun and everyone seems to be getting a real kick out of it…when you consider the other culinary disasters I could be creating these ones do sound pretty good.
So – stop by the butchers pick up a pound or two of the best quality bacon he has available, double smoked thick cut is my drug of choice and get cooking – let me know what you come up with. Get on the bacon bandwagon, all the cool kids are doing it !!
